Two Tennessee towns will lose nearly 2,000 jobs over the next three years as Goodman Manufacturing moves the positions to a new plant being built in Texas. Goodman officials announced on Tuesday that the company plans to consolidate operations at a campus in Houston, which is expected to open in 2016. The company has about 1,200 workers in Fayetteville, making it the largest employer in a town with about 7,000 residents. A smaller factory in Dayton employs about 700 workers. Goodman said employees will have the option of making the move with the company or taking a severance package...

Manchester Chamber of Commerce has announced the hiring of Terri Hudson as its new director. Hudson comes to Manchester from her hometown of Richmond, KY. She brings more than 10 years of experience in non-profit organizations. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Eastern Kentucky University and is a graduate of Leadership Madison County and Leadership Central Kentucky. Most recently, Hudson served as the Vice President of Operations at Bluegrass Tomorrow, a non-profit central Kentucky regional planning and quality of life organization. She was also a job coach and class facilitator at Kentucky River Foothills, a non-profit social...

The Coffee and Franklin County Communications Districts and Emergency Communication Districts filed suit recently in United States Eastern District Court in Chattanooga against Windstream Holdings Inc., Windstream Corp., Windstream Communications Inc. and Windstream Norlight Inc. of Little Rock, Ark. to recover $75,000 plus interest by each communication district. The suit is filed under the Tennessee False Claims Act. The communication districts allege in their suit that the company has not been properly paying them for phone lines that the company controls. By law each phone user pays a surcharge for 911 service and that money is supposed to go...

The following information is provided by local fire departments. You can help prevent a portable heater fire in your home this winter by following a few fire safety steps: • Turn heaters off when you go to bed or leave a room. • Keep anything that can burn, including bedding, clothing, curtains, pets and people at least three feet away from portable heaters. • Only use portable heaters from a recognized testing laboratory and with an automatic shut-off so that if they tip over, they shut off. • Plug portable heaters directly into outlets and never into an extension...

The Tennessee Valley Authority is asking for a voluntary reduction in electricity use until Thursday afternoon as a result of frigid temperatures causing high demand across the Southeast. The request extends to all electric power consumers – residential, commercial and industrial customers. The voluntary reduction will help ensure a continued supply of power to essential services throughout TVA’s seven-state service territory and avoid interruptions of service. All of TVA’s available generating resources are being used to meet the peak power demand. TVA’s bulk electric system remains secure and stable at this time. Consumers can reduce their power consumption and...

The weather forecasters are saying that temperatures today and tonight will only reach the 20’s for a high and near zero this evening in some areas. The Coffee County Emergency Management Agency is operating a cold weather shelter in the community room of the Coffee County Administration building on McArthur Street in Manchester. (Opening at 4pm Wednesday) Coffee County Emergency Management Agency Director Allen Lendley stated that if anyone needs shelter please call 723-5105. There would cots set up and a place for people to sleep if they need to as the temperatures plunge to the coldest temperatures this...

A new bill sponsored by state Rep. Bo Mitchell would allow grocery stores to sell wine in July of this year instead of waiting until 2016 as originally scheduled. By definition, the bill “shortens the time frame by one year for the implementation of certain provisions governing the sale of wine in retail food stores.” Tennesseans in many cities and counties, including Manchester and Tullahoma voted last November to allow the sale of wine in grocery...